Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Ethiopia Aid Should Have Strings Attached

THE government of Ethiopia has appealed to international donors of food aid to assist those at risk of starvation. This has perplexed those who remember the same government's recent claim of a bumper harvest.

This claim is now being seen as an exaggeration.

It would be better, in my opinion, to put Addis Ababa's latest request for aid in the context of recurrent diversions of food aid to the Ethiopian military.

This was certainly the case in the 1980s; it may well have been the case during Ethiopia's war against Eritrea in the late 1990s, and it may be about to happen again.

Irish Examiner

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